The Cat and the Crane
by girlwiththedragontatooine
Summary: In which Selina Kyle and Dr. Crane cross paths, and seduction is attempted. Both see romance as nothing but a chance for manipulation, but can they change their ways? Let's find out.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:** After reading some discussion on Tumblr as to why Catwoman/Scarecrow is such a hard pairing to pull off, I foolishly decided to make an attempt at a fic. Of course, this is also the first fic I've ever published online, so you'll have to cut me some slack!

Friendly reminder that I don't own any of the Batman/Nolan characters

**Chapter 1**

It was easy to fake high society, if you knew the right tricks. Diamonds were a girl's best friend, after all, but costume jewelry and the right accent worked wonders on the middle-aged rich bachelor.

Selina Kyle smiled as she adjusted her trusty little black dress, smoothing as many of the wrinkles in its silky fabric as she could. The wear and tear of endless cons was starting to take its toll on the poor dress, but with the help of Selina's latest acquisition, a thick gold chain taken out of its safe while its owner was busy getting plastered at a house party, she could maintain the illusion of upper class long enough to snag another mook in a suit.

The Arkham Asylum Charity ball was in a week, and Selina Kyle was determined to get in. The very thought of all the high-class donators with their high-class handbags full to the brim with crisp banknotes and heavy checkbooks sent shivers down Selina's spine. After a month's worth of successful capers, Selina had enough money to pay rent for her and Jen _and_ buy actual food instead of whatever she could scrape from the discount stores. That meant that this heist could reap Selina some actual, frivolous spending money, and lots of it. The kind that could buy Selina a new black dress, or a decent bed, or both- finally something beyond the bare minimum to make ends meet.

Sweeping a brush across the caked over surface of an old blush compact, Selina applied the pink to her cheeks and practiced looking demure in the mirror.

_It's so lovely to see you again,_ purred the voice in her head, as she imagined accidentally bumping into that bookish, slender doctor again. She had settled on that certain psychiatrist after doing some research on Arkham- he was single, mild-mannered, and high up enough on the Asylum's ladder that he was certain to be at the Charity ball. He would be the perfect foot in the door, if only Selina could get him to invite her as his date.

Fortunately, seduction ran thicker than blood in Selina Kyle, and so naturally she was sure to make an impression when she showed up to the Gotham City Health and Wellness society's awards dinner (some lazy doctor had left their invitation lying out on a table when Selina had gotten a tour of the Asylum, and she _accidentally_ pocketed it).

Slipping into a pair of black heels that may or may not have been modified with a hidden blade or two, Selina picked up her clutch and was out the door, imaging strutting into the dinner and uttering a ravishing _We meet again, Doctor Crane _as she walked up to the awe-stricken man's table.

_Too easy, _Selina thought smugly


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note:** Thanks to those of you who posted reviews or favorited! I really appreciate the support, and it sure as heck encourages me to keep going. I hope you all enjoy this chapter.

**Chapter 2**

It was times like these that made Jonathan Crane wonder whether it was worth it to go through the arduous process of becoming a doctor if it meant spending so much of his time at infuriatingly dull dinners. He'd just spent the majority of the past half-hour sitting on his hands and resisting the urge to stab out his eyes with his salad fork. Or perhaps the urge was to stab out Leland's.

Dr. Joan Leland was the director of Arkham Asylum and one of the most disgustingly cheerful people Crane had ever met. Tonight she had managed to fill the air with unnaturally perky small talk, ranging from poking fun at the new interns to asking Crane if "he's found a special someone to keep him company yet."

The curt "no" Crane had let slip through gritted teeth was the most civil thing he could manage, as the majority of his energy was focused on suppressing a fantasy of lunging across the table and throttling the damn happiness right out of her. The rest of the Arkham staff was equally as disgusting, enabling Leland's endless prying comments with teasing replies and a chorus of forced laughter.

Naturally, Crane almost felt the blissful throes of relief when a figure in black sidled quietly up to their table.

Of course, the "almost" was key, because as soon as Crane saw who it was, he felt the hot prickles of rage and disgust run down his back.

"Oh, Miss Kyle! What a pleasant surprise!" Leland exclaimed jovially, taking the gloved hand of the woman standing beside her in her own. Leland rounded on Crane with wide eyes ready to take in any gossip that would inevitably be shared in mocking tones around the water cooler tomorrow. "Dr. Crane, you remember Miss Kyle, don't you? She toured the Asylum last week for research on her project for… oh, what was it dear? Ah yes, her psychology class at U of Gotham. She was so very interested in your work, you know."

"Yes, I remember." Crane kept his vision focused on his fork, trying his best to come off as bored and hide anger that he felt almost ashamed of. He remembered meeting _Miss Kyle_ all right, that little brunette minx following him around and fixing him with a dark-lashed stare that prevented him from sneaking off to work on his not-strictly-legal experiments and made him feel utterly powerless, something he would never admit to anyone. And Jonathan Crane hated feeling powerless. He hated it, hated the feeling of someone else pulling the strings and pushing his face into the dirt and laughing. He wouldn't stand for it. He didn't, not any more.

"Well, aren't you going to say hello to her, or are you waiting for that fork to do back flips?" Leland laughed at her own pathetic attempt at humor while Crane turned his seething gaze onto Selina Kyle.

She was dressed much fancier now than when he saw her last, in a tight black dress and long dark gloves. She must have been trying to look glamorous, but Crane thought she was too skinny to pull off the high-class act. Everyone else around here was fat from gorging themselves on their excesses gained from stepping on their inferiors. The thinness of Selina's wrists and the slight hollow to her cheeks made her look like she didn't have any excess at all, and perhaps maybe didn't even have enough. He almost felt bad for her, were she not the one who had set his fear toxin modifications back by a week.

Stiffly standing up, Crane took Selina Kyle's hand like it was a slimy fish and tried to put the least amount of cordiality that he could into his muttered reply to her purred, "So we meet again, Doctor Crane." Even his most icy glare couldn't wipe the red-lipped smirk off of her face, and Crane once again was sent reeling in rage over the alleged power she thought she had over him. She probably thought he was attracted to her, as if he would ever desire such an ill-educated and petty creature.

To his general displeasure, as Crane took his seat Leland invited Selina to take the chair beside him. Selina sent him another grin and brushed her legs against his in a way that was most definitely on purpose.

Crane could no longer focus on his fork. His anger was too much at this woman sitting beside him, this woman who was now bringing back painful memories of his Grandma Keeney striking him across the face, proclaiming _Man shall not desire carnal knowledge of a woman,_ before locking him off with the birds again.

Jonathan Crane was not about to let this strange woman, this pathetic excuse for a psychology student, _this half-starved harlot_ have control over him.

Turning to face the woman with a pleasant expression not forced in the slightest, Crane wondered to himself, _What do you fear, Selina Kyle?_


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note:** Thanks for all the reviews! Keep 'em coming if you want more, I really appreciate them. And sorry I took so long getting this chapter up. Midterms are next week so I've had more homework than usual

**Chapter 3**

Possibly one of the worst things about robbing the rich (besides the unexpected reappearances of vacationing wives) was the sheer boredom Selina faced attending stupid events.

The Gotham City Health and Wellness society's awards dinner felt like a neverending parade of fat, white guys in suits giving speeches in the same monotone voice. Selina leaned on on gloved arm, surveying each speaker with a sigh. She had been trying to play a game where she guessed if she'd robbed whatever speaker came next, but even that got dull when all she was really dying to do was chat up blue-eyed cutie next to her.

Well, okay, initially he'd seemed like a cutie. Back at the asylum, he had a bit of bookish handsomeness to him, like maybe if he just took off his glasses and put on a proper-fitting suit, he'd be Brad Pitt status, but now… Selina wasn't stupid. She'd seen the look he gave her when she arrived at the table. She was surprised she didn't drop dead on the spot.

_What did I do?_ She thought to herself as she shot a sideways look at Doctor Jonathan Crane.

He watched the speeches with a mouth pressed into a tiny line, his eyebrows raised like he doubted everything each award winner said. She could just imagine knives shooting out of that blue gaze, such was the demeanor of this ice king.

Selina kicked her foot out of her high heel. _I've got to get a response out of this guy before it gets too late,_ she thought, and straightened up in her seat, getting back into that flirtatious state of mind. He had, after all, given her a geniune grin when she sat down; there _had_ to be more where that came from.

Gently lifting her foot, Selina felt around for the leg of Crane's pants, and then very softly brushed against his foot. From the corner of her eye, Selina saw Crane jump the tiniest bit in his seat before rounding on her with that same sharp glare.

Ignoring his obvious irritation with a flip of her hair, Selina flashed Crane what she was sure was a heart-breaking smile.

There were a few seconds of glaring where Selina thought she had failed and was embarassing herself trying to win this man, but then a faint red blush spread across Crane's face and his eyes darted away from her gaze for the tiniest of moments.

Selina saw her opening and pounced.

"So this is the exciting life of a Doctor," she whispered, trying to keep her triumphant grin from taking over her face.

Crane had managed to cobble together an attempt at his previous ice king expression. "I don't know what you mean," he muttered back coldly.

Selina twirled a finger through her dark hair. "Oh, you know, it's just that this awards ceremony is so _riveting_ that I can barely stay in my seat."

Crane arched an eyebrow in Selina's direction. "It's not supposed to be exciting. The ceremony is strictly to let the higher-ups pat each other on the back for doing nothing."

"Oh, the famous Doctor Crane is one of strong opinions, is he? " purred Selina, heart racing in the ecstacy of actually getting a response out of him, "You think this whole thing is fake, then?"

"The work of the truly award-worthy is often feared by the ignorance of the masses," was Crane's cryptic response. He turned his attention back to the current award winner, who Selina had conned out of several large diamonds last month.

Frustrated at being brushed off by Crane again, Selina brought out the claws. Placing her black-gloved hand on Crane's leg, she tried her best not to sound too forceful when she asked, "And what is it that the award-worthy do?"

Crane turned back to Selina, his eyes no longer daggers, but shining with a certain curiousity that made the hairs on the back of Selina's neck stand up. He wrapped his hand around hers, and answered in a low voice, "Would you like to find out?"


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note:** Sorry for such a delayed update! I've been suffering from the deadly combination of insane business and incredible laziness, and unfortunately it kept me from getting to writing more of the fic. But despair not! I will be trying my best to update it every day this week. Thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter, and keep 'em coming!

**Chapter 4**

Jonathan Crane could not think of a single instance of things going smoothly after he brought a woman home. Mind you, the list was short, but every single name on it had stormed out of his house after some variation of _You're a fucking psychopath! _ was exclaimed in a huff.

Naturally, Crane had given up on having a normal sex life long ago. Such desires of the body were beneath him, anyway. His intellect was better spent attending to a more faithful and understanding mistress- fear. Of course, when presented with the opportunity to mix his love affair with terror with a physical love affair, why would he pass it up?

That was the reasoning Crane gave himself when he walked into his bedroom to see Selina Kyle sprawled out across his bed with her black dress crumpled up into a pile on the floor. She didn't have power over him. Any physical beauty or aggressive seduction had no effect on him, he assured himself. He just was used to courting weak-willed women with round eyes full of tears, the kind that could be pushed around easily. Selina was another breed entirely, but one he would soon tame.

Sitting up on the bed, Selina Kyle grabbed Crane by his tie and pulled him towards her. "Now isn't this more fun than having to stay at that ceremony? Let's give some awards to the man who _really_ deserves it." She placed her hands softly on Crane 's cheeks and leaned forward for a kiss.

Crane's heart was beating somewhere in his ears as he momentarily forgot himself and kissed the woman back with a certain thirst that was only found in men like him. When was the last time he had let go or given in? When had he allowed himself to be powerless? The sounds of his brain must have been drowned out by his heartbeat, the way he was acting. He kissed Selina harder, pressing into her body with a fierce desire. Hesitating from her kiss, Selina ran her hands down Crane's chest and made to remove his suit jacket.

Crane was starting to give up control when suddenly everything snapped into place. His heartbeat faded to a low buzz as the red roar of rage replaced it in his mind, his brain coming back to full function in a loud burst. She thought she was so clever, waiting until she got a man into the sack before robbing him, but he felt the weight leave his suit pocket as she nonchalantly plucked his wallet away. _Of course_- he should have known! She was so skinny, so eager, wearing shiny necklaces to distract from the worn out seams of her dress. Selina Kyle wasn't interested in Crane; she was interested in his money! But Crane had spent enough years of his life hiding poverty to know when someone else was faking it.

And to think he was almost willing to trust this minx for a moment. He deserved it, too, this betrayal of trust, for even allowing Selina to have power over him in the first place. What a fool he was.

Selina noticed something was wrong, stopping her caress when Crane stiffened angrily. "Is something wrong, Jonathan?"

Rage was subsiding to let a new emotion wash through him- excitement. This was why Crane had taken Selina home in the first place- to punish the girl for daring to control him. A grim smile spread across his face, as he answered her, "No, nothing at all But perhaps I would be more comfortable if you would lie down."

Selina nodded with a smirk. "Oh, of course."

_She still thinks she's in power even now, the fool,_ Crane thought with satisfaction. Leaning over the woman, Crane slipped a hand into his pocket, and then in one swift motion placed a small gas mask over his mouth with one hand while hitting the release valve on the flask of fear toxin around his wrist with the other.

Selina Kyle screamed.


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: **All of the information I use for Catwoman's backstory in this chapter and upcoming chapters is taken from _Batman: Year One_, only with Holly Robinson replaced with Jen, her Nolanverse equivalent. I don't know if a trigger warning is needed here, but the chapter does briefly delve into Selina Kyle's past life as a prostitute. Tread lightly.

**Chapter 5**

_Selina Kyle knew something wrong the instant she recognized the cracked streets of old Gotham. Shadowy figures lurked everywhere, around corners and behind buildings, always just out of her line of sight, and always faceless. She walked down the road with a familiar cold chill creeping down her spine, but she tried her best not to show it. Walking with her head thrown back and eyes alert, she pretended owned the place. And once upon a time she thought she did. She knew better now, with the lies of the past brought into the unforgiving harshness of light._

"_Hey, babe."_

_Speak of the devil- here comes the biggest lie now._

_Selina was never one to be scared of ex boyfriends, but all the same, she was positive there was a special ring of hell reserved for her ex-lover and –pimp, Stan. _

"_What do you want, Stan?" She didn't want to look at his face. Just the sound of his raspy voice like a rat in the gutter was enough to disgust her._

"_I got another customer for you," he whispered in her ear. In the corner of her eye, Selina thought she saw the shadows twitch. Picking up her pace, she kept walking with her head forward. _

_She felt a slimy hand at her wrist. "Oh, so just because you screw high-society suits you think you're better than us! But I can see through that act! I know that beneath all the diamonds you're still dirt like us!" He chuckled, low and confident. The sound made that hairs on the back of Selina's neck stand up. She hated that sound; it made her feel like she was owned, like she was an object for sale._

_Selina scratched at his wrist, trying to pry Stan off of her, but his grip wouldn't release. He grabbed her face roughly with his other hand and turned it towards him, but Selina bit his arm and managed to break free. _

"_No! This is my past! I left the streets! I'm trying to make a _life_ for myself!"_

_To her horror, Selina realized that Stan still had a hold of her, only know his skin had turned into the blackness of the shadows around her. She pushed him and clawed him, but no matter what she did there was still shadow everywhere. The blackness clung to her skin like tar, caking her arms and her hands and kept spreading, no matter what she did._

_The sharpness of Stan's laughter cut across her body like the slash of a knife._

"_Run all you want, but you can never leave the streets!"_

_And then the shadows swarmed, and Selina saw no more._

Selina Kyle woke up with a pounding headache on an unfamiliar couch. Groggily opening her eyes, she scanned the room around her in an attempt to gain her bearings. This wasn't the first time she'd woken up in a strange man's house, but with the adrenaline still pumping through her heart from whatever nightmare had just taken a hold of her brain, she was feeling less like an accomplished cat burglar, and more like a scared kid trying anything to make a buck.

At first she thought she was in a doctor's office by the plain white walls and bland furniture, but then Selina spotted the bespectacled man in the chair across from the couch observing her with studious focus, and her memories came flooding back. Dr. Crane. The awards ceremony. The flirting. _The charity ball!_

Selina sat up abruptly. "What happened?" she managed to get out before her head throbbed in a brutal reminder of the migraine she was nursing. Did she get drunk? She'd never felt this way hung over before, and she had certainly never had such vivid night terrors, whether she fell asleep plastered or not.

Crane stood up from his chair and placed a reassuring hand on top of Selina's. "You don't remember?" he asked with genuine curiosity. She couldn't recall ever seeing the stoic man show so much emotion before.

Straightening up, Selina wracked her throbbing brain back to the night before. Obviously, her flirting had been successful enough to land her in Crane's apartment; she remembered that. And memories of stretching out across Crane's bed were starting to come back to her, along with the growing dread that she had very much embarrassed herself. In the heat of the moment, she had gotten foolish and tried to pickpocket him, but before she could take any money out of his wallet, he'd almost gotten angry with her, it seemed.

Selina glanced guiltily back at Crane. There was a slight bulge in his suit pocket that indicated his wallet was back where it was supposed to be. She dropped her vision back down to her hands, which were still shaking a little in the wake of her dream. Should she feel bad about getting caught? On the one hand, a girl needed her money, but on the other hand, she was starting to get attached to Crane. He was sort of cute, in a nerdy, clinical way. And the way he stared at her with his now very warm blue eyes was a little bit endearing.

Settling for bashfully apologetic, Selina peeked through her eyelashes a murmured, "I'm beginning to get the feeling I might have messed up in the sack last night."

Of course, this still didn't solve the blacking-out issue. It had happened right after her attempt at petty thievery, but why? Selina Kyle was hardly the faint of heart; this kind of behavior did lend itself to her at all!

"Oh, don't worry about that," Crane said, coming to sit beside her with a reassuring smile. "It happens. You must have drunk a lot of wine at that ceremony to pass out like that, though."

Selina blushed and bit her lip. So perhaps she _did _have a weaker liver than she expected. That still didn't explain her dream.

"What's wrong?" Crane asked softly, leaning in closer to Selina. "Did you have a nightmare? You're covered in sweat, and you were tossing and turning all night. You kept muttering a name- Stan?"

Selina's breath hitched, and Crane's grip at her hand tightened. "Oh, it was nothing. Just one of those dreams that seems scary when you're in it, but then the fear goes away when you wake up." She almost pulled off confidence in her voice when she spoke, except the mention of Stan was bringing back unpleasant memories that were only heightened by her dream. She couldn't quite control it when her voice shook.

Crane pulled Selina closer and turned her to look him in the eye. "Oh, I'd hardly call that nothing. I am a psychiatrist, after all. Please, tell me all about this night terror of yours."

Selina could hardly resist the excited twinkle in his eyes.


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: **Not much to add up here today, but I do need to make a shoutout to MyDarkeGuardianAngel for being my Beta!

Please don't forget to review if you liked the story. I need motivation to keep writing!

**Chapter 6**

Jonathan Crane did not believe in fortune, but if he did, he would have been shocked at the amount of good luck he had stumbled into. Sitting before him was a very disheveled Selina Kyle, pallid, shaking, and completely oblivious to her exposure to fear toxin! What a perfect opportunity for study this was, having this broken girl diverge her fears. It had been too long since Crane had worked on something other than a drooling inmate from the Asylum.

Selina took a deep breath before beginning, "Well, it... it was about my ex, I guess."

Crane cocked an eyebrow. _Of course, a girl like her probably has thousands of exes. Naturally, her terrors would be drawn to such a petty thing. _"And did you have a bad relationship with this ex?"

"Oh, 'bad' doesn't even begin to cover it. Picture the skeeziest piece of dirt on the street you can, and then triple it, and you have Stan." Selina shuddered. "I was young and foolish when I met him, and I didn't know what kind of demon I was linking myself to until it was too late."

"And what exactly did Stan do in your dream that was so terrifying?" Crane asked, imagining the girl must have been hung up over some trite grievance. Perhaps he forgot her birthday, or bought her the wrong color dress.

Selina seemed to have picked up on the hint of condescension in Crane's tone. "Look, you didn't know Stan. The way he treated women… Well, let's just say I had a bit of a dark past, and in my dream he was trying to drag me back into it."

"A dark past?" Crane asked, torn between intrigue and dismissal. Selina was probably exaggerating, the way the common people do, but then again, she _was_ a thief. Who knew what kind of life she used to live if she was settling for stealing now? What scum did she have to drag herself out of? "So, would you say you fear your past?"

The color had begun to return to Selina's face, and she sat up straighter. Her eyes narrowed. "That's a bit of a personal question, don't you think? Besides, the past is gone. I have no reason to fear it."

Crane studied the hard look on her face for a moment before he concluded that further questioning was probably moot. Obviously if he wanted to delve further, he would have to first give her another dose of fear toxin. And Crane definitely wanted to learn more. Her defensiveness hinted at something truly dark lurking behind those doe eyes, and besides, his childhood in poverty could give him an edge in understanding her situation. This was a case that _needed _to be explored.

Crane relaxed his face into a smile. "Of course, Selina. I was merely curious. Remember, I am paid to study the human mind, and it is a nice change of pace to study one that is a bit more… intact… than my usual subjects'"

The smile on Selina's face came a bit slower than his as she stopped to consider his words. "Thank you… I think?"

Crane laughed, and convincingly, too. Pleased with the cordial act he was managing to put on, he extended his hand to Selina. "Oh, it was a compliment. I would love to do this again some time."

Taking his hand in a surprisingly firm grip, Selina perked up and winked as she said, "Me, too. I'd love for a chance to redeem myself, if you know what I mean."

A rush of heat flooded Crane's face before he could register what Selina meant. After all this, and she still wanted to sleep with him? He pursed his lips and tried to regain control over himself. Selina Kyle was a thief, a subject, and a weak mind to be studied. Nothing else.

Having to try a little bit harder now to put on the "gracious host" act, Crane said his goodbyes to Selina and had almost escaped with his wits intact, had the woman not had the nerve to plant a very enthusiastic kiss on his lips.

Heart racing even after Selina was long gone with his apartment, Crane could at least admit to himself that this had been the most successful date he'd had in a long time.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N:** My beta is on vacation this week, so pardon any errors.

Also, Jen is the Nolanverse equivalent of Holly Robinson, in case anyone is confused.

**Chapter 7**

The strange fog that had hovered in Selina Kyle's mind all morning was not blown away until she slammed opened the door to her tiny excuse of an apartment in half a haze.

"Jenny, I'm home," she called out in a flat voice that came from some two feet to her left.

Dumping her purse and coat onto the ground beside her without so much as a second glance, Selina stumbled into her apartment and tried to get a grip on what had happened.

_Did I really just black out in the middle of a date?_

_Why was my nightmare so vivid?_

_Why did it have to be about _Stan_? _

His face still swam in her vision, surrounded by sticky tendrils of shadows that blurred into the calculating blue gaze of Jonathan Crane, and then back into the streets and the ex-boyfriend who taught her everything she knew.

"NO!" Selina cried out, clawing at the peeling wallpaper in a fit of rage. "No."

Breathing deeply, she straightened up and let the dry flakes of wallpaper tumble out of her hand like flower-patterned drops of snow.

Selina ambled to the kitchen, in desperate need of a drink to chase the monsters away. She had tried her best to hide from Crane how badly her nightmare had affected her. Sure, he was a psychiatrist, but there was no way he'd want a second date from a girl he had to psychoanalyze before she was stable enough to go home. Admittedly, he did seem very interested in her fears, but she didn't want him to think of her as a subject. She needed him to see her as an object- an object of desire. Someone who was easy to take home, but never got too clingy. Someone you could take to a charity ball and forget about afterwards.

Jen's voice rang out from the other room. "Selina? Hey, are you okay? I heard shouting"

Selina poked her head around the kitchen doorway. Putting on the same fake smile she'd shared with Crane, she answered, "Yeah, sorry, I just dropped my keys on the way in, that's all." When Jen eyed her suspiciously, Selina tried for a bigger smile.

Jen cocked her head to the side. "Any reason you've got the whole milk carton out, then?"

Selina looked down at her hands, which were in a white-knuckle grip on the half-full carton. "Uh… Have we refilled the cats' bowl yet?"

"No, but we should. I'll open the kitchen window," Jen said, apparently buying Selina's excuse. She walked over to the window, wild mane of blonde hair bouncing with each step. "Here kitty, kitty, kitty," she called out. She stuck her head out the window and called again,  
"Miss Kitty, Isis, here girls!"

Selina giggled. Jen was practically halfway through the window. Pulling her friend back into the kitchen, Selina said, "Don't worry. They'll show up when they feel like it."

"Yeah, just like you, missy." Jen nudged Selina in the side teasingly. "Where were you prowling around last night?"

"When did you become my mother?" Selina asked as she poured some milk into the cat bowl on the floor.

"I just want to know what you were up to!" Jen asked, pulling her arms around Selina's waist when she straightened up. "I'm guessing your awards ceremony wasn't an all-nighter."

Selina sighed, and tried to push away the memories before the memory could overtake her again. "No, actually, I was at an after party. For two." In spite of herself, Selina smiled. Night terrors notwithstanding, she still got a little thrill remembering the red flush on Crane's face when he saw her lying on his bed.

Jen rested her head on Selina's shoulder. Looking up at her, she asked, "So it was successful?"

Selina frowned, unsure of how to answer. "Well, I landed a second date. Hopefully I'm climbing up the latter to 'charity ball plus one.' Only time and lots of alcohol can tell."

Jen giggled into Selina's shoulder. "What was he like? Still the shy and quiet doctor?"

"No, he's definitely not shy. Quiet, maybe. Proud, definitely. You should have heard him talking about other doctors at the awards ceremony."

"Oh, one of _those_ types?" Jen giggled.

Selina thought for a moment, remembered how Crane comforted her from her nightmare. The way his eyes had looked genuinely warm as he asked her about the dream…

"I don't think he's really stuck-up or anything… He's just… guarded? I don't think he's much of a people person. But when I was telling him about my nightmare he was really sweet, and-"

"Nightmare?" Jen pulled away from Selina, putting her hands on her hips. "Selina, I thought you said the night went fine!"

"It was only a teeny little bad dream," Selina explained, waving her hand dismissively. "Apparently I blacked out or fainted or something, I don't know. But when I woke up, Crane was very supportive and practically cuddly."

"Selina!" Jen exclaimed, eyebrows practically vanishing into her hair. "What if he roofied you or something?"

"No, Jen, I probably just drank too much and got too excited. He's a doctor! And besides, I think it might have helped make him like me more, since we got to talk about my fears. He's really into all that 'psychoanalyzing the frightful' junk, you know."

Jen put a hand on Selina's shoulder, brown eyes staring seriously into Selina's own. "Selina Kyle. Think about what you just said."

Selina shrugged. "What? I'm just saying that he liked studying my fear after I blacked out and- Oh my god!"


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: **Sorry for such a long absence, guys! Summer's been very distracting, and I also kinda felt like this story wasn't doing very well. But it's gotten a few favorites recently, so I decided to keep going!

Roxy Sutton is a one-shot villainess who was introduced in "Mad Love and Other Tales." She went by the name of "Rocket Girl" and you can probably figure out what her gimmick was…

**Chapter 8**

Jonathan Crane's least favorite part of psychiatry was assisting the D.A. Specifically, he was required to interview an array of disgusting criminals to determine their mental state. While Crane could not deny that there was a certain pleasure in pronouncing some of Gotham's particularly detestable scum insane, knowing that he could punish them for their crimes under the cover of his asylum, he hated talking to the sane ones. The ones whose cruelty and misdeeds could not be attributed to a disorder. The ones who were as sane as him.

Crane had killed before. So had many of the people he declared sane. This similarity sent prickles down Crane's spine and made him reflexively clench his hand around imagined fear toxin, so that he could tear apart the criminal's mind and prove that they were nothing alike.

Today, however, his hand was clutched around actual toxin.

"No, you see here, sweetheart, I haven't done anything wrong! I swore off crime after I got thrown in the slammer last time. They're just sending me back because they're paranoid I'll go back to stealing since no one's hiring any stunt girls around here." Roxy Stutton was a slender girl with a muscular build, long brown hair and an impressively deep pout. The combined effect was sickening to Crane, like watching a magazine ad trying to prove its innocence.

"You pushed someone off of a rocket, Miss Stutton. That's hardly paranoia." Crane's thin writing formed the words "delusional" in his notes, along with "naïve," and "compulsive liar." He was going to be disappointed when he ended up having to declare her sane.

Roxy straightened up. "I did no such thing! That man fell! I had no idea he had grabbed on to the tail of my rocket. He should have known better then to do that."

Crane crossed "delusional" off of his notes, and then looked up at Roxy with furrowed eyebrows. The way she grinned, her lips sticky red with lipgloss, was revolting.

Roxy leaned forward, batting her eyelashes in an uncomfortably familiar way. "Aw, Doctor Crane, are you really gonna let a pretty girl like me go back to Blackgate? They nearly pulled me apart last time." She placed her hand on top of his hand, which was still tightly clutching his fear toxin.

Crane didn't know why he had brought the syringe with him into that tiny, white room. There was something about the file picture of Roxy that made him _angry_, made him want to watch her scream in terror. But he thought he understood now.

Her dark hair fell across her slender neck like it was pulled from his memories of thick brunette strands sweeping across a pale skin and a black dress. Roxy's dark eyes were full of a predatory hunger, that hint that she wasn't genuine. That in her mind she was laughing at him. That _Selina _was laughing at him…

Crane pulled his hand away from Roxy's sharply. He stood up, words sputtering out of him in barely controlled rage. "Do not insult me, you… you…" But Crane couldn't get a word out that properly expressed his anger. Instead, he plunged the syringe into Roxy's neck as she let out a high-pitched scream like a car alarm. Crane removed the syringe immediately and she fell writhing to the floor.

From where he stood over her, Crane could almost imagine the woman on the floor, who's dark eyes searched wildly around the room, screaming at invisible terrors, could be Selina, lost in a vision of "Stan" and whatever it was he did to her that made her scream.


End file.
